


The House in the Wood

by alexcat



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Friends to Lovers, M/M, Pining, Prompt Fic, picture prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:07:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22379182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexcat/pseuds/alexcat
Summary: Steve and Tony become friends and more and it all started in a little house in the wood.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39
Collections: Of Elves and Men, Picture_Prompt_Fun





	The House in the Wood

**Author's Note:**

> This is the picture:
> 
> [](https://imgur.com/9Q8Y02T)  
> 

They had run until they were both exhausted – which was saying a lot for Iron Man and Captain America. Tony’s suit was damaged and even though the reactor was still working, his communications and most of his other functions weren’t working well, if at all. Steve had some minor injuries, but mainly he was tired from the battle and from helping Tony get away in his mostly dead suit. 

The old house was just sitting there when they came out of thicket and into a clearing. It was closed up as if whoever left it meant to come back sometime. It looked like it might fall anytime but it hadn’t yet. If it had ever been painted, the paint was long gone and the wood was grayed with age. The windows were surprisingly not broken and the door still stood on its hinges.

“Shall we go inside?” Steve asked Tony, as he wrapped an arm around Tony to help him walk. 

“Sounds like it’s going to rain any minute and we’re both pretty wiped so I’d say that’s a yes.” 

Steve pulled away some of the vines growing in front of the doorway then turned the doorknob. It wasn’t locked and the door creaked open by itself once he’d started it. They stepped into the little house. There was just enough light coming in the open door to see. 

The floor was wooden like the walls. The boards seemed strong enough as they cautiously stepped inside. There was a small table with two ladderback chairs on one side and a single wrought iron cot on the other. Other than a layer of dust, the house was surprisingly clean. There was no evidence that anything or anyone had been inside since it was closed up. 

“Try sitting on the bed,” Steve said. “Your suit might be too heavy for the chairs.”

Tony sat gingerly on the mattress. Nothing broke. “Help me get this thing off.”

“Does it come off without the reactor?” 

“Yeah, but it takes a while to remove by hand.”

Steve helped and they removed Tony’s suit piece by piece, setting it on the floor. Tony wore sweatpants and a t-shirt under the suit. Both were a bit damp from the heat. 

Steve removed his suit, too. He wore boxers and a t-shirt underneath. He only had a few bruises showing, but both of them knew they’d be gone in a few hours. The serum was truly amazing to see in action. Tiny cuts and bruises often healed in minutes. Toy’s would take days to fade.

“So now what?” Steve asked. He was not a lot better at sitting still with nothing to do than Tony was. 

“We wait for the others to come after us.”

“They got away,” Steve pointed out, meaning the men they were chasing. 

“They won’t get far. Nat will catch them.” 

Steve laughed. “They’ll wish we had gotten to them first.” He sat in one of the chairs, which seemed to hold up rather well.

The silence was a little awkward. Steve and Tony worked like a well-oiled machine on missions, but outside that, they didn’t seem to ever have much to say that wasn’t snarky, sometimes even rude. 

They both spoke at the same time. “Look, I know we got off on the wrong foot,” Steve said as Tony said, “I’m sorry about all the silly names.”

They both abruptly stopped. “You first,” Steve said. 

“Sorry about the nicknames. It’s something I do, puts me at ease with people I don’t know well. And sometimes the name sticks, like Rhodey. I guess maybe meeting a legend intimidated me a little. My father spoke of you all the time when I was a kid.” 

Steve blinked. “I was expecting – I’m not sure what I expected from you. Howard made me uncomfortable sometimes. He was so brainy and good looking. You seemed cut from his mold, I guess.”

Tony looked away. “Not sure whether to thank you or be pissed. He was not always not such a good father, but he loved me in his own way, I think.”

“He was brilliant like you, Stark. He was a ladies’ man, too. I felt a bit thick at times with him, just like I do you. I’m just a poor kid from Brooklyn,” Steve said letting his childhood accent slip in during the last few words. 

Tony laughed. “Thick you’re not, Cap. I can build anything, but sometimes I’m amazed at how you can see a battle with such clarity, how you can read a situation so well.”

“Do you think there is a possibility that we might become friends? I was friends with Howard, even though we didn’t know each other very long. I’d like to be friends with you, too.”

Tony smiled. “I’d like that. I think Pepper, Rhodey and Happy are my only true friends and I pay two of them.” He shrugged and cocked his head to one side in that way he had. 

Steve went still. “Someone’s coming. Sounds like a Quinjet.” 

In a few moments, Tony heard it, too. They went out in front of the cabin and a spotlight shone down on them, as it had gotten rather dark as the daylight waned. 

“Steve, why are you in your underwear? Did we interrupt something?” Natasha called down to them. Steve could hear the laugh in her voice.

“The suits are hot and Tony’s is damaged,” he called back up to her. 

“Sure!” she smirked. “Grab your stuff and we’ll send a ladder down. The clearing isn’t big enough for us to land.”

Minutes later, they had hoisted Tony’s suit up on a hook and the two of them had been lifted by a rope ladder into the ship. They headed for New York and Avengers Tower. 

They didn’t talk about their time in the little house, but after that, everyone noticed that their leaders seemed to be friendlier with one another than they’d been before. 

Tony got to work immediately on the Iron Man suit. Steve had taken to hanging out in the workshop and watching. Sometimes he brought his sketchbook with him, though he didn’t show Tony what he drew. Sometimes Tony asked for his help with something. 

One evening, Tony was in the suit when Steve arrived. He was as tall as Steve when he was suited up. He flipped his visor closed and slowly circled the room just above the floor and came to land right in front of Steve. 

“Well?” he asked. 

“What?” Steve asked back.

“Does it look right? Does it fly smoothly?” 

Steve nodded. 

“You should have seen me fly when I first buily the thing. I was all over the place, crashing into the walls and my cars.”

“Your flying is smooth as glass now.”

“Did you ever want the power to fly?” Tony asked him. 

“I’ll leave that to you.”

“I can take you flying.” Tony said, still standing right in front of Steve.

“You mean out there?” He motioned to the windows. 

“If you want to,” Tony said. 

“Why not?” 

“You want to ride sort of piggyback? That way you can hold on.” 

They walked out to the launch pad on the roof of the building. Steve put his arms around Stark’s chest from behind. 

“Maybe we need to belt you to me as well,” Tony said. They went back inside and found some straps on crates of materials and equipment and used those to secure Steve to Tony, like a harness around their middles. 

Outside again, Steve put his arms around Tony and they lifted off the building. Tony made a slow circle around the building. 

“This is amazing,” Steve said as they flew lazily across Manhattan out to the Statue of Liberty. 

“I never get enough of it, especially at night,” Tony told him as they flew out over New York Harbor. “Sometimes I fly all night. I can go a long ways in the suit.”

“I run. When everyone is asleep, I run.” 

“Anywhere in particular?” Tony asked him.

“Nope. Just up one street and down another. Sometimes I run in the park, sometimes I go out to Brooklyn and visit Ma’s grave. Sometimes I just wander around.” 

Tony took off and flew them to Brooklyn. He knew where Steve’s mother and father were buried. He’d visited the little graveyard himself one night as he flew. They landed and Steve unfastened his harness. They walked to the graves. 

“I was eighteen when she died. Bucky offered to let me live with him and his folks but I was too stubborn,” Steve said as he touched the small stone with both names on it. 

“I was twenty-one when my mom and dad were killed. I miss them both but I miss my mother the most.”

Steve put a hand on the shoulder of his suit. “Thanks for bringing me here.” 

They harnessed back up and flew back to the roof of Avengers Tower. They didn’t talk much after they left the graveyard, each man lost in thought. 

Back in the workshop, Tony removed his suit and turned to Steve. “Want to come to my place for a cup of coffee?” 

Steve seldom drank coffee but he nodded. He was reluctant to leave Tony for some reason. They went up one floor to the penthouse. The whole floor was Tony’s home. It had living quarters, a smaller version of his workshop, a gym and an office. The two men went into the kitchen. Tony made coffee and began to rummage in the refrigerator. 

“Hungry?” he asked Steve. 

“Always. The serum likes food.”

“Pepper has been filling the fridge again. Carrots, celery, tomatoes, kale, blueberries.” He looked sadly at Steve. “Nothing _good_ in here. Wait, maybe there’s ice cream.” 

There was a small container of Cherry Garcia. And a bag of frozen mango chunks. 

“Wanna go out?”

“I’ve got a couple of frozen pizzas in my freezer,” Steve said. 

“Sold to the man with the shield!” 

They took their coffee and went to Steve’s much smaller apartment. 

This was the first time Tony had been in any of the other apartments in the building. They apartments were two bedroom ones with open den and kitchen and one and half baths. They had high quality appliances and a small laundry room off the kitchen as well. 

“Not too bad. Do you like the apartment?” Tony asked Steve.

“It’s the biggest place I’ve ever lived in and the nicest so yeah, I do like it. Nat helped me furnish it. She says I have old lady taste.” The apartment was done in antique furniture from the early 20th century. None of it was fancy or expensive, but it all fit together nicely. Drapes and upholstery was simple and didn’t detract from the lovely wooden tables and chairs. 

The second bedroom was a studio with an easel and a tilted drawing table. There all sorts of pencils, brushes, paints and other art supplies scattered over several tables in the room. 

Tony wandered into the room and picked up a sketch. It was Iron Man, lifting into the air. Steve had captured him perfectly. 

“You’re good.”

“Thanks. I guess if I’d never had the serum, I’d have been an artist, drawing ads for newspapers and such.”

“Do you do nudes?” 

“Not since art school.”

“Nat would be -” Tony started to say.

Steve laughed. “She’d break my jaw if I asked.” 

Tony laughed. “True. That’s so true. Did she tell you about working for me? She was undercover but I didn’t know it at the time.”

“I’d heard she’d worked for you but no details.” 

“I could not take my eyes off of her. Tight skirts and sassy as hell.” 

Steve laughed. “Dangerous?”

“Oh god yes. I had dreams about her alternately screwing me and beating the shit out me.”

“Had a few of those myself.” 

Tony laughed. “Neither of us has a chance, do we?” 

“Nope. Aren’t you with Miss Potts anyway?” 

“Not at the present. She says I am too stressful to live with.” 

“You probably are. You stress me sometimes and I’m not your girlfriend.” 

Tony laughed. “You wanna be? I currently have an opening.”

Steve wondered where this conversation was going to go. He hoped nowhere. His own limited sexual past was not something he wanted to share yet with anyone. He had never had many partners at all, but the ones he’d had were of both sexes. Precisely they were Bucky, Peggy and a one night stand with a dancer in the USO. He was pretty sure that Stark only went for women, if his history was to be believed. 

“I’ll pass. My job is too demanding for a boyfriend.”

Tony laughed, but Steve didn’t miss the appraising look that Stark gave him.

Steve turned on his oven and got the pizza out of the freezer. “Want some extra toppings? More cheese and maybe some more peppers and olives?” 

Tony nodded and Steve did a little chopping and grating while the oven heated then popped the pizza in. 

“About twenty minutes. Do you like sports? Play golf? Box?”

“I like to race cars, but that’s because I like speed. You’re a baseball fan?”

“Yeah, but the Dodgers kinda left Brooklyn a long time ago.”

“We can go out to LA to see them.”

“You don’t like sports.” 

“I can get box seats and drink Scotch while we watch. It’s all good.”

Steve grinned. “I’d like that.”

“I’ll have my assistant make the arrangements.”

The timer dinged just then and Steve got out the pizza. He found a couple of beers in the fridge to go with the pizza. 

Tony sighed happily as he bit into the pizza. 

“You know, you were born over 50 years before me.” Tony said as he pulled a string of cheese from the slice he just took from the pan. 

“Are you hinting that I’m old?” Steve laughed. “I feel old sometimes.”

“But you’re really a lot younger than me. What were you, twenty- seven or so when you went into the ice? So you’re really 28 or so now? I’m a good bit older than you.”

“I grew up before television. Hell, I grew up before everyone even had radios and now – geez, phones, computers, your suit – the world is sometimes like an alien landscape to me.”

“You’re doing okay, Cap. I can do anything with machines, but people are sometimes pretty alien to me.”

“I just try to put myself in other people’s places and look at things from their point of view.” 

Tony winced. “I can’t seem to do that, Cap.” 

“You do better than you realize, Tony.” 

Tony shrugged. “If you say so.”

They ate and talked into the night. Steve seldom got fatigued unless he was fighting, but he noticed that Tony was flagging a bit. 

“Hey, I’ll walk you to back to the penthouse. I’m afraid you’ll fall asleep and sleep in the elevator,” Steve told him with a smile. 

Tony grinned. “That has happened more times than you’d think!”

When they got to Tony’s door, he turned to leave. 

“Steve,” Tony said. 

He turned back and Tony said, “Thanks for everything.” 

Steve grinned and nodded. “Thanks for taking me flying.” 

*

The two men began spending enough time together that the others noticed it, especially Natasha. 

“So are you dating Stark?” she asked him 

Steve laughed. “He told me you’d ask me that, but no, I’m not dating Stark.” 

She arched an eyebrow. “You sure?”

“Yeah, I think I’d know.” 

She laughed hard, “Really? I’m not so sure. He hasn’t kissed you yet, has he?” 

Steve laughed. “Come on. Let’s spar. I need my ass handed to me today.” 

She grinned. She was sure he let her beat him. Well, almost sure. She was never completely sure that they hadn’t done more than just take away her ability to have children when they did surgery on her in the Red Room. 

“I’m pretty sure Tony would like a little of that ass, too,” she said as they squared off. 

She did not miss the blush that stained his cheeks for a moment before they began to fight. 

While Steve was taking Natasha’s ribbing, Tony was having dreams. Hot, sticky sex dreams. He was hornier than he’d been since he hit puberty and his libido was uncontrollable. At first, he didn’t even connect the dreams to anyone, particularly Steve. He just thought maybe it was not having a partner. 

Then he went down to the gym one morning to ask Steve if he wanted to go to an art exhibit that Pepper had gotten tickets for. He stepped off the elevator and saw him from behind, punching his old fashioned punching bag, the muscles in his shoulders, his back and his ass rippling as he beat the bag. 

Tony’s dick went hard immediately. 

“Jesus Christ!” he yelped, surprising both Steve and himself with his outburst. 

“You okay?” Steve asked just as he noticed the obvious bulge in Tony’s baggy pants. 

“Uh, yeah. I wanted to know if you’re up for an art exhibit. Pepper got tickets and she said it’s a big deal and that you’d like it.”

“Not the Van Gogh exhibit at the Met?” 

“Yep, that’s the one. Our tickets will let us in before it’s opened to the public. We get a couple of hours with just a few other people around.” 

Steve’ face lit up. “I’d love it.” His eyes went back to Tony’s middle.

Tony ignored it. “Saturday at ten am. Pepper says we have to wear suits. You got a suit?” 

Steve nodded. Maria Hill had gotten him a suit after he’d thawed, along with his other clothing. He did have to turn up now and again all dressed up. 

“Uh, sorry I interrupted your – uh, workout.” 

Steve smiled. “No problem. If you hang out until I get done, we can hit the kitchen for some breakfast.”

Tony thought, sure, if I don’t have to run off to jerk off first. He said, “I need to check a couple of things in the workshop. I’ll meet you in the kitchen in half an hour. Okay?” 

Steve nodded and went back to his punching. 

Tony made a detour to his penthouse, and met Steve at the appointed time for breakfast. They ate Eggos with syrup and cherry Poptarts. 

“This is so not a healthy breakfast,” Tony laughed as Steve poured a giant glass of milk. “Well, maybe the milk, but not the rest. Pour me one, too.” Tony thought a minute and said, “Ever put chocolate syrup in it? Makes great chocolate milk.” 

Steve looked in the fridge and found a bottle of syrup. Tony poured it into their glasses and stirred with a spoon. Steve tasted it and sighed. “Mmm. So good. Don’t they sell it already made?”

“They do but it’s not as good as this.” 

After breakfast, Tony went back to his workshop, but he had a hard time concentrating. The funny part is that it wasn’t Steve punching the bag that he thought about, but his delight in the chocolate milk they’d made. 

Several weeks later, the call came in from Maria Hill at 2:43 am. There was some sort of incursion in the same area from a few weeks before, up in the country. There was little up there of interest though Bruce said there _was_ some sort of odd fluctuation in the earth’s magnetic field there. 

They scrambled to the site to find a small ship of some sort, shooting at them and everything nearby as well. It was certainly not an alien incursion, but more of a raid by one gang on another’s secret warehouse. They did have some tech that must have been Chitauri because they were able to knock Tony’s suit out near the end of the fight. The other Avengers were able to subdue the ship and its crew eventually, but not before Tony disappeared out of sight. 

Steve had paid attention to the direction Tony had gone in, realizing that he might have headed back to the little house in the wood. He helped the rest of the Avengers secure the prisoners and equipment then he headed to the little house to find Tony. 

Tony was inside, suit removed and sitting on the cot. The little house was much the same as it had been the last time they were there, still dusty and dark inside. 

“Are you okay?” 

“I am. One of the hits I took shorted something in the suit’s electrical system. I need to get that issue fixed so it won’t happen when I’m airborne.”

Steve saw blood on Tony’s shirt. 

“You _are_ hurt.” He moved closer. 

Tony waved him away. “I cut my shoulder getting out of the suit.” He showed Steve a small cut, one that appeared to be superficial. 

“We wait?” 

“We’ll let them know we’re okay and to send someone out in a few hours,” Tony said in a way that again sounded like it all was planned. What Tony said next answered his question. “It was fortunate this happened because I’ve been trying to figure out how to get you out here again.”

“For what?” 

“I’m not sure. Well, I am sure. Just not sure you’re going to like the why when I tell you.” 

“Spit it out.”

“I wanted to spend some time alone with you. We – well – there have times when we – what we have is not exactly like two buddies.”

“How is that?”

“Well, I – uh – damn, this is hard to figure out how to say.”

Steve made a sound of irritation, almost a snort. “Just say it, Stark. If we have a problem, we need to work it out.”

“Not sure we have a problem yet?” 

Tony couldn’t decide if Steve was truly as clueless as he seemed or if he were just making things harder on purpose. 

“Spell it out. I’m not good with hints and subtlety sometimes.”

“I’d like to date you,” Tony blurted out. 

Steve burst out laughing at the way Tony’s phrased it. He already knew there was an attraction. He felt it himself and he’d been sure it was mutual when he’d seen Tony’s hard-on in the gym. 

“Date me? Like go dancing and kiss me at my door?” Steve asked.

“Is that what you want?”

“The kiss part sounds good,” Steve admitted. 

“You want me to kiss you?” Tony leaned forward on the cot. 

“The thought has crossed my mind a few times.”

“I had you pegged as straight as an arrow, Cap.” Tony sounded surprised.

“I did you, too.” 

“Are you?” Tony asked. 

“Um, no. I’ve been with exactly two women and one man. That’s it.” 

“Hmmm. Well, maybe this problem isn’t a problem at all,” Tony told him.

“What do you mean?”

“I kinda figured when I said something about the dating part, you’d deck my ass. I hadn’t prepared anything past that.”

Steve grinned. “Would it make you happier if I hit you?” 

“Not necessary. I –so what do we do?” 

“Kiss. We kiss, Tony. Your lips, my lips.”

Tony didn’t move from the cot, just looked up at Steve with the same amount of longing that  
Steve felt. How had they not known this? 

Steve leaned down and gently touched his lips to Tony’s. Tony put his hand on Steve’s cheek. The kiss was sweet and short, nothing erotic yet it made two hearts pound. Instead of pulling Tony to his feet, Steve sat beside him on the small cot and kissed him again. This kiss was longer, more passionate as the two embraced, as Tony pulled Steve on top of him as he lay back. 

“Here? In the dust?” Steve whispered as his hands found the bottom of Tony’s t-shirt. 

“You want to wait?” Tony helped him pull the shirt up and off. 

“Mmmm. No, I don’t think I do.” Steve kissed Tony again as his hands wandered over Tony’s warm skin. 

An hour later, someone was banging on the door. “Put your pants on, you two!” It was Natasha. She always had a way with words. 

They did as she bade them, since both were tangled on the dusty cot without a stitch of clothing on between them. Steve grinned as he pulled on his pants and his suit, throwing Tony’s t-shirt and socks toward him on the cot. 

“Hurry!” Tony whispered. “She’ll bang through the door in a minute.”

“Don’t you think she knows what we were doing? She’s smarter than all the rest of us combined,” Steve mouthed back quietly as he laced his boots up. Tony stood and yanked his pants up and nodded toward the door. 

“We thought you’d never get here,” Steve said as he opened the door for Natasha and Clint. 

She stepped in and wrinkled her nose. “Really? Here? I won’t tell if you won’t,” she told them as Clint smirked at them. Steve figured he was glad she wasn’t on his ass about something. 

Back at Avengers Tower, Tony and Steve had gone to their separate apartments to shower. They met in the kitchen with everyone else, all hungry from their mission. Saving the world makes a person hungry, Steve decided as he watched Tony stroll into the room. 

“So who’s cooking? Am I cooking? I can boil water… what else do we need to call it food?” Tony asked. 

“Pizza. I have the pizza place here,” Steve pointed to his phone. 

“I ordered some Chinese, too,” Banner said. 

Tony grinned. “Shawarma? Anyone want shawarma, now that we know we like it? Falafel too?” 

“Order some of everything,” Natasha said. “You all eat like pigs.” 

“But you don’t?” Clint elbowed her. 

“Nope. I nibble.” 

They ordered some of this and some of that until they had a table full of all sorts of foods. Tony sat by Steve and watched him eat. The boy could put it away, he thought. He touched Steve’s knee under the table, just a simple quick pat then pushed his chair back. 

“Time to fix the suit again. You never know when we we’ll get another call,” Tony said as he left for the workshop. 

Steve ate another piece of pizza and got up, too. 

“Where you goin’, Cap?” Natasha asked. 

“Got some reports to work on. Agent Hill likes her paperwork.” 

“Tell him not to keep you up too late. We’re sparring in the morning,” she whispered to him as she helped him put some of the leftovers away. 

Twenty minutes later, Steve stepped into Tony’s workshop. Tony looked up from the piece of his suit that he was tinkering with and grinned. 

“How long you gonna be?” Steve asked. 

“Don’t know. The suit is a mess. I can’t have nice things, apparently.”

“You can have me. I’m nice,” Steve murmured, almost under his breath. He wasn’t sure if Tony wanted to continue what they’d started or if it was a one off. 

Tony put the metal arm he was holding down and stood. “I didn’t think you were all that nice this afternoon. You were downright naughty, if you ask me.”

Steve licked his lip and stepped closer to Tony. “I don’t recall it that way. Maybe you can show me what I did that was naughty…” He let his sentence trail off as Tony looked into his eyes and pulled him close for a kiss. “So I can do it again,” he finally finished as Tony’s hands began to work on his zipper. 

“It’ll be my pleasure,” Tony told him as they moved toward the old sofa against the wall. Their clothes fell away rather quickly and soon, the only sounds were the rocking of the sofa and some assorted sighs and groans from its occupants. 

Tony normally turned away and went to sleep when he was done, but not tonight. He pulled the afghan that Natasha had made for him from behind them and covered both him and Steve as he snuggled close to him. 

“Not quite as dusty as the old house, but it’ll do fine,” Steve said as he kissed Tony’s forehead just before they drifted into sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> My [**Tumblr**](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/alexcat45).


End file.
